LVIV, Ukraine -- Andrei Mishchenko, 24, a well-groomed candidate for the city council here in western Ukraine, offered voters a simple platform: an end to hot water interruption during the summer, better street lighting, more bread and milk stores, and a reworking of the No. 3 bus route.Amid the populist promises, Mishchenko downplayed his association with the Social Nationalist Party, perhaps the most radical of several far-right parties which have become more politically active here in recent months.With a similar focus on populism, more than 200 ultranationalists Sunday ran for office across western Ukraine, the traditional hotbed of nationalist sentiment, in the first free local elections in the country's history.Election officials Monday said it was too early to tell if Mishchenko's bread-and-water program had paid off. But several ultranationalists are expected to win in local elections here. Across the country, nationalism played an important part in incumbent President Leonid Kravchuk's first-round victory. He enjoyed his strongest support in the nationalist western part of the country.Nationalism has deep roots in this western Ukrainian capital of faded baroque charm which has passed from Austro-Hungarian, through Polish and Soviet finally to Ukrainian hands this century alone. Even the ultranationalists -- who favor a nuclear-armed Ukraine to ward off enemies -- concede that winning a few local council seats gives them little real power. But they say these are the political seeds of the future when nationalist sentiment will launch them into power across the country, especially if Ukraine continues to stumble through its first years of independence with its economy in free fall."This is only the beginning," said Oleg Vitovich, one of three ultranationalists to gain nationwide parliamentary seats in April. "People want order, discipline and concrete change for the better and they understand only we can deliver."Even though it is easy to dismiss such bravado, the unexpected success of Vladimir Zhirinovsky in Russia's December parliamentary election shows that the public's longing for order can change political fortunes overnight in the chaos of post-Soviet life.So far, Vitovich, 27, acknowledges that political life has been pretty lonely on the far right."In parliament, many treat me with respect, but they hate me," he said. "We are just psychologically too different."The Ukrainian National Assembly, or UNA, and its paramilitary arm, the Ukrainian People's Self-Defense, the UNSO, which Vitovich heads, espouse many of the goals of more moderate nationalists such as a strong army and Ukrainian as the sole national language."Our goal is to create a Ukraine that is an example to other nations," said Andry Shkil, 30, the head of the UNA. "Now we're not even a Third World nation we're Fourth World, our own special category."Yet it is the ultranationalists' more radical methods -- such as traveling to the Crimea to protest publicly against the Russian majority there -- which divides them from more moderate nationalists.They complain the ultranationalists give them a bad name. "This is not real nationalism -- or at least it is only the totalitarian version of nationalism," said Yury Klyuchkovsky, local head of Rukh, a pro-democracy nationalist group. Although many view them as dangerous stepchildren of fascism, ultranationalist leaders, who have their national base in Lviv, are becoming more sophisticated. The Social Nationalist Party, for example, say their symbol of an "N" with a line down the middle does not resemble a swastika, and deny any admiration for the German Nazis.For the time being, both the UNA/UNSO, which claims 10,000 members and the Social Nationalist Party, which has about 600 members, say they will keep within democratic parameters. But they make no bones about their long-term intentions."Our main goal is to come to power," said Shkil.